Note: You can track Hurricane Helene’s approach to the Gulf Coast in the player above
Hurricane Helene is slowly churning toward the Florida Gulf Coast, potentially becoming a Category 4 storm before it makes landfall, but its remnants will have impacts in the Chicago area in coming days.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm is expected to make landfall Thursday evening, bringing with it a 15-to-20 foot storm surge, sustained winds in excess of 130 miles per hour and devastating rainfall across the southeast.
The storm is then expected to push northward, dumping a foot or more of rain on parts of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, but its influences could be felt even beyond the south.
According to the National Weather Service, the remnants of Helene are expected to begin impacting the Chicago area on Friday afternoon and into the evening hours, with ferocious winds out of the south potentially reaching or exceeding 40 miles per hour at times.
A wind advisory has been issued for Kankakee County in Illinois, along with Newton and Jasper counties in Indiana, that will take effect Friday afternoon and last until early Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
Those winds are expected to persist until Saturday, but the impacts from the storm system won’t be done.
Local
As the remnants of Helene push north, the low-pressure system that will remain will throw out bands of rain that are expected to sweep across parts of Kentucky and even into Illinois, potentially bringing showers to the southern parts of the Chicago area on Saturday and into Sunday.
The areas expecting the brunt of the impact are likely to be southeast of Interstate 55, according to NWS officials, but bands could push slightly further north as well, with scattered showers possible through at least Sunday afternoon before the system begins to push towards the east.
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